Published by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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A number of colleges have offered reduced, deferred, or even free tuition since the spring, but midsummer has raised a new crop of similar announcements.
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Price breaks could make a huge difference on enrollment in a volatile fall, according to research by the Art & Science Group, a company that consults with colleges. Surveying current and admitted students for one of its clients, a private college, Art & Science researchers found that if that particular college chose to go online only, it could lose 30 percent of its enrollment yield for admitted freshmen and 25 percent of its current students.
As part of the same survey, researchers surveyed the effects of a one-time 20 percent institutional grant to students enrolling online-only for fall. At this college, a 20 percent grant would cut the expected hit to enrollment yield for freshmen to about 15 percent, and cut the projected retention drop to about 15 percent.
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If each student brings in slightly less tuition, but there are more of them, a college might squeak by. After all, many colleges have used tuition discounting for decades to bring in more students who pay less. Many colleges will respond to the current crisis by increasing aid to individual students rather than adjusting their official prices, Kelchen adds.
The Art & Science Group has been recommending that many of its clients reduce the cost burden on students and their families, either through tuition discounts or increased aid to students.
While the short-term financial pain from a discount might be intense, it could benefit the longer-term financial health of the institution. “If you enroll a student, or you retain the student, you will have her post-pandemic, when your pricing and your aid reverts to normal,” says Nanci Tessier, a senior vice president for the group. “But if she doesn't come back and goes to her local state institution, you're never going to get another dollar of revenue from her.”
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It’s possible that Covid-19 could create a sea change in how institutions and students and their families look at the price of a college education.